Nathan Bangs · 16 of 23

Chapter 8. From the Close of the General Conference of 1808, to the Commencement of the General Conference of 1812. · 1810

This year the Genesee Conference was formed, making eight in all. Such had been the increase of preachers and people in western New York and in the Canadas, particularly in the upper province, that the bishops thought it advisable, in the exercise of the authority invested in them by the last General Conference, to set off a new conference for the accommodation of that part of the work.

This year the Western conference was held in Cincinnati, Ohio where Methodism had grown up with the growth of the place, and strengthened with its strength. And is this considered the “queen city" of the west, perhaps it may not be amiss to give some account of its location and first settlements, as well as the progress of the gospel among its inhabitants.

Cincinnati was first laid out as a town in 1789, when the copulation could not have been more that between two and three hundred, for in 1800 it was only seven hundred and fifty — whereas now it numbers more than forty thousand.

It is beautifully located on the western bank of the Ohio river, in Hamilton county, on a plain, the hills behind it rising like a spacious amphitheater, giving a commanding view of the city, the Ohio river, and the surrounding country, variegated as it is by hill and dale.

By whom and at what time Methodism was introduced into Cincinnati, I have not been able to learn, but presume it must have been about the year 1800, under the labors of Henry Smith, as he formed what was called the Miami circuit about that time, to which Cincinnati was attached until the year 1809. In the year 1805 Bishops Asbury and Whatcoat visited the town, and put up at the house of William Lives. At that time there were few in the place who feared God, and but a small society of Methodists. Bishop Asbury, however, gave them a discourse on “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.” In 1807 bishop Asbury was again in Cincinnati, and remarks that the brethren had succeeded in building a stone house of worship, forty feet by thirty, which, it is presumed, was the first built in that city. Here he preached on Sabbath, Sept. 26, to a crowded house, and then met the society and ordained W. McNeachan and William Whitiker to the office of deacon.

Before his arrival in Cincinnati the bishop had attended a camp-meeting at Hockhocking, and a conference at Chillicothie, of which he speaks as having a salutary effect upon the minds of the people. “Notwithstanding,” he remarks, opposition from more than one quarter, our last camp-meeting was successful; the fruit is immediate; and where it is not it will yet be seen.”

In 1808, after traversing various parts of the country, attending camp and other meetings, we find him, in company with Henry Boehm, who preached to the people of Cincinnati in the German language, again in this place, where he preached on Sabbath morning to the people with much satisfaction, and again at 3 o’clock in the house of brother Lakin. He says in this connection, “I have advised the society here to invite the Western yearly conference to hold their session in Cincinnati.”

The next year, in company with Bishop McKendree, we find him once more in Cincinnati, when he remarks: — “The house here is enlarged, and the society increased.” Until the year 1809, the Miami circuit included Cincinnati, and contained one thousand two hundred and eighty church members. But at the conference for 1809 the name of the circuit was changed to Cincinnati, and Miami became the name of a new district. This year, 1810, there are returned on the minutes of conference for Cincinnati, eight hundred and twenty-one church members, under the charge of two preachers; but whether it included any other places than the city, I cannot tell.

This year, as before said, in accordance with the advice of bishop Asbury, the Western conference was held in Cincinnati. He arrived there on Thursday, the 27th of September, and on Sunday preached morning and evening, met the society on Monday, and “I felt,” says he, “an intimate communion with God, and great love to the people, saints and poor sinners;” and on Tuesday he “bid farewell to our loving and affectionate friends in Cincinnati,” with a view to make an excursion into the country before the assembling of the conference, that no time might be lost in idleness or unnecessary recreation.

The conference commenced on Thursday, Nov. 1, and it “progressed on well" during its sessions, and they found an increase of four thousand for the past year. Bishop McKendree was present at this time, and on Sabbath preached to the conference and the people who assembled.

Last year a new district was formed in the Western conference, called Indiana, and this year two new circuits, Cape Girrideau and Vincennes, were added to it, making in all six circuits, under the charge of Samuel Parker; whose labors in that part of the country were rendered a blessing to many. By this it will be seen that the work was still spreading in the west, keeping pace with the growing population of the country, so that the ordinances of religion might be established simultaneously with their civil and domestic institutions.

Vincennes is the oldest town in the state, and was settled, as its name indicates, by the French, as early as 1690, at the time when that enterprising nation, to secure their American colonies from the depredations of other nations, were stretching a line of military posts and small settlements from Quebec up the St. Lawrence, and along the shores of the lakes and rivers to New Orleans. But though thus early settled, its increase for a considerable time was exceedingly slow, exhibiting none of those marks of industry and rapid population which have more recently distinguished the rising counties and states of the west. It is stated indeed, that in 1800 the entire territory of Indiana contained only five thousand six hundred and forty one inhabitants; but in 1820, four years after it was admitted into the federal Union, it contained a population of one hundred and forty-seven thousand one hundred and seventy-eight; and in 1810, the time of which we are speaking, there were twenty-four thousand five hundred and twenty inhabitants — quite a sufficient number to demand the exertions, of a gospel ministry.

The district over which Mr. Parker presided, included a large tract of country comprehending portions of Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana; and the two circuits above named, namely, Cape Girrideau and Vincennes, were traveled, the first by Jesse Walker and the second by William Winans. They must have cultivated this rugged field with considerable success, for we find in the minutes of conference for the next year, for Cape Girrideau, one hundred, and Vincennes one hundred and twenty-five members, and for the entire district, one thousand and nine.

We have mentioned that there was a great work of God in the city of New York in the two preceding years; and perhaps from the time the Society was formed in this city, there had not been so general a revival as this. In the two years the increase of members amounted to not less than five hundred and ninety-seven, making in all, including white and colored, two thousand; and a spirit of zeal seemed to characterize the entire body of Methodists in the city, so much so that in the year 1810 two new churches were built, one in Allen, and the other in Bedford Street, known then as Greenwich village and the good work still progressed with encouraging success in most of the churches.

In other portions of the church there were prosperous times, and generally great peace and harmony prevailed through all our borders.

Locations, however, still continued to weaken the ministry, by depriving the Church of some of its more experienced ministers; for not less than fifty-one desisted from traveling this year in the several annual conferences; twelve were returned supernumerary; ten superannuated, and two, Reuben Hubbard and Clement Hickman, withdrew, the first of whom joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, and, it is to be hoped, retained his usefulness. Moses Black, Joseph Everett, and John Wilson had died in the Lord.

Joseph Everett was, in many respects, a remarkable man. He was a native of Queen Anns county, Maryland, and was born June 17th, 1732. Educated in the English Church, he was early biased in favor of her forms and ceremonies, though, as to the fundamental doctrines of the Church, or experimental and practical religion, he was entirely indifferent, and so remained until the year 1763, when he was awakened and converted by the preaching of the “New Lights,” the followers of Mr. Whitefield. He accordingly became a member of the Presbyterian Church; but having only few associates like-minded with himself, and drinking in the doctrine of unconditional predestination, he gradually lost his religious enjoyment, and finally became more vicious than ever. In this state he continued for many years, during which time he volunteered as a soldier in the militia of Maryland in defense of his country’s rights in the time of the Revolutionary war; but in 1778, under the preaching of Mr. Asbury, he was aroused from his spiritual lethargy, and induced to seek again for redemption in the blood of Christ. After many hard struggles with unbelief and a rebellious heart, he was restored to the favor of God, and by consulting the able and luminous writings of Wesley and Fletcher, he was led to a new view of the plan of redemption and the way of salvation by faith in Christ, and more especially to, an enlarged and more comprehensive view of the divine goodness toward our fallen world.

The result was, that he joined the Methodist Church, and in 1780 entered the traveling ministry.

Here was a new field for the exercise of his talents — and it soon appeared that he was indeed anointed of God to preach the gospel. He was eminently distinguished for the boldness, the pointedness, plainness, and energy with which he rebuked sin, and warned the sinner of his danger. And these searching appeals to the consciences of his hearers, made them tremble under the fearful apprehension of the wrath of God, and their high responsibility to him for their conduct. Great was the success which attended his faithful admonitions; for wherever he went he was like a flame of fire darting conviction into the understanding and conscience of the ungodly, and at the same time pointing the penitent to the blood of the Lamb for pardon and salvation.

In this work he continued with untiring industry and indefatigable perseverance until, worn down with labor and toil, in 1804, he received a superannuated relation, but still bearing his pointed testimony for God as long as he was able to speak in his name, and manifesting to the last an unshaken confidence in God, and an unabated attachment to the doctrines and discipline of the church of his choice.

He died at Dr. White’s, in Dorchester county, Maryland, it being the house whence he set out on his itinerant life, and on the circuit which he first traveled, on the 16th day of October, 1809, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and thirtieth of his ministry. His last end “was peace and assurance for ever.” At about twelve o’clock of the night on which he died, he awoke from a gentle slumber, and immediately broke forth in praise, shouting glory to God. In this exercise he continued for about twenty five minutes, to the joy and astonishment of his friends, and then ceased to speak and breathe at once.

The name of Joseph Everett deserves to be enrolled among the early veterans of the cross of Christ. He joined the ranks of Methodism in its infancy in this country, and contributed largely to fix it on that broad basis on which it has since stood unshaken amid the storms and billows with which it had to contend.

It would, indeed, seem that the Methodist preachers of those days were so imbued with the spirit of their Master, and so entirely absorbed in their peculiar work, that they thought of little else but saving souls from death. And so deeply penetrated were they with the “exceeding sinfulness of sin,” that their rebukes to the sinner were sometimes tremendously awful, and fearfully pointed and solemn. This was peculiarly so with Mr. Everett. His whole soul seemed to be thrown into his subject whenever he preached, and his warnings and entreaties were enough to melt the stoutest heart, while he wound the cord of truth so tightly around the sinner’s conscience as to make him writhe and tremble under the wounds it inflicted. But he left him not here to welter in his blood. He presented to his troubled mind the “sin-atoning Victim,” as a “balm for every wound,” and as now ready, to “appoint to him the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” The rich promises of the gospel to penitent sinners dropped from his lips like honey descending from the honey-comb, and when believingly received by such, he rejoiced over them as a father rejoices over a returning prodigal, while with the happy believer he participated in all the fullness of perfect love.

John Wilson was an Englishman by birth, born in Poulten, Feb. B, 1763, where he received, through the assiduity of his pious parents, a religious education, and in his youth became a member of the Methodist Society. In 1793 he emigrated to this country. After settling in the city of New York in 1795, he received a new baptism of the Holy Spirit, and was led on, step by step, from a class-leader to a local preacher, until in 1797 he entered the traveling ministry, for which he was eminently fitted both by gifts and grace. He traveled and preached in a number of circuits with much usefulness, greatly beloved by the people, until 1803, when his ministerial labors were much restricted by an attack of asthma, from which he never fully recovered. This laid the foundation for his dissolution, on January 28th, 1810, in the forty-seventh year of his age, and thirteenth of his ministry.

In 1804 he was elected by the General Conference an assistant book agent, and in 1808 to the charge of the establishment. These offices he filled with great fidelity, for which he was well qualified by his previous habits and the course of his education. He was, indeed, a ready writer, an excellent accountant, of industrious and punctual habits, as well as of a sound judgment and courteous demeanor. He was also well skilled in his own, and in the Latin and Greek languages, and fully understood the various systems of theology with which the world abounds.

In the midst, however, of the multifarious concerns of his agency, he never forgot his obligations as a minister of the sanctuary; and if he excelled in any one branch of Christian doctrine more than another, it was in explaining and enforcing sanctification, or holiness of heart and life. This formed the theme of all his discourses, to promote which he made all the other truths of the gospel and religious exercises subservient.

And as this trait in the Christian system engaged much of his attention in his pulpit labors, so he was no less distinguished in his more private intercourse by the sweetness of his temper, the cheerfulness of his disposition, and the urbanity of his manners.

Bishop Asbury once said to him, in the examination of characters in the conference, “Brother Wilson, I am afraid you are not as spiritual as you used to be.” He replied, with a pleasant smile upon his countenance, and a little pertness of manner, “Indeed sir, if you had heard me preach to the Africans last Sabbath, you would alter your opinion.” He then, in most respectful terms, thanked the bishop for the reproof, and promised to endeavor to profit by it.

He was, indeed, an exceedingly pleasant companion buoyant in his spirits, and though apt at illustration by anecdotes, sometimes of a facetious character, he always took care to make them rebuke some folly, correct a foible, or exemplify the spirit of piety and Christian zeal.

In the several relations he held to the Church, be maintained the dignity of the minister of Jesus Christ, the humility and meekness of the Christian, and the strict integrity of the sound moralist. Hence those who held intercourse with him were always pleased with their reception, from the gentleness of his deportment, the blandness of his manner, and his scrupulous regard to justice, goodness, and truth, which were manifested in all his conduct. Hence he was far removed from the hauteur [airs, conceit — DVM] of the spiritual despot as from the effeminacy of the wily sycophant [apple-polisher — DVM]. He was therefore at once beloved and respected by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.

He died suddenly. Having prayed with his family in the evening of the 28th of January, he retired to rest, but awoke about five o’clock in the morning and found himself suffocating from the phlegm rising in his throat, which he was unable to discharge, and in a few minutes he ceased to breathe. His previous life declares more emphatically than words could express it, that his end was peace.

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 139,836; Last Year: 131,154; Increase: 8,682 — Colored This Year: 34,724; Last Year: 31,884; Increase: 2,840 — Total This Year: 174,560; Last Year: 163,038 — Increase: 11,522 — Preachers This Year: 636; Last Year: 597; Increase: 39.